Tank
The tank's job is to make sure mobs are attacking him and not the allies. He has much higher endurance and armor, making him tough to kill. Tanking not only is a role but it is also a leadership position. You'll set the pace in dungeons, and people will expect you to know what to do. What to Know Pulling When a player begins attacking a mob, this is called a pull. In a group setting, the tank generally does the pull. This ensures only the tank takes the damage. Threat The attention of mobs is controlled by threat level. When the mob is attacked, or when the person it is attacking is healed, those players will have their threat level increase. Higher damage or healing means higher threat. With enough damage the mob will focus on a different person. Because the tank has weak damage, he relies on buffs and skills. The skill tree has passive buffs that increases threat output based on endurance level. Mage, cleric, and rogue tanks have a single skill that multiplies damage threat by four. Warrior has attacks that deal significant threat. Taunts Maintaining threat can be tricky, but tanks have a special skill: taunts. Taunting forces a mob to ignore threat level and attack the user. The skill only lasts for a brief moment, so threat must be established after that period. Terms ;Mitigate :Literally to lessen or reduce. Mitigation skills make you take less damage. ;Threat :How much a mob should pay attention. Increased by damage and healing. Threat output is generally multiplied by tank roles. ;Threat Table :A list of all the players or targets the mob has threat on. Determines who the mob pays attention to. ;Absorb :A skill that protects your health. All damage will be intercepted by the absorb until it disappears. The absorb bar is a cyan-bar color that appears on top of your health bar. ;Taunt :Forces mobs to attack you for a brief period. When it ends, the mobs will resume their threat table. ;Tank Buff :A buff that increases threat output, endurance, and resistance. Unique to cleric, mage, and rogues. How to Tank For Dungeons Once the dungeon begins, you need to figure out how experienced the group is. Ask if anyone is new. You should also be familiar with the dungeon yourself, if not you're going to make the situation stressful on yourself and others. At the very least, go through it as a DPS and pay attention to how the tank plays it. For each pull: #Readycheck with care. Make sure your group is ready before you run in. Typing /readycheck into the chatbox will prompt all group members asking if they are ready or not. You don't have to do this before every pull, only when changes in the group occur or important encounters such as: #*Right when entering the dungeon #*Before a boss encounter #*If someone was resurrected #*Coming back from AFK or bio #Double-check your group. #*Your tank buff is on #*DPS is active #*Healer skills not on cooldown #*Healer has mana #Begin your attack. For a single mob, use your most powerful attack. For a group, use an AoE and be sure it hits all of them. #Unless you plan on quickly chaining a second pull, use a taunt. This gives you more time to build up your threat. #Watch for ranged mobs. They don't run towards you with the others and threat can be lost if you don't take care of them. Sometimes you will have to individually attack these. #If you miss any mobs, more than likely they'll chase down the healer. Immediately taunt them, and build up threat with attacks. #Before the mobs die, pull again. You want the group to be always attacking or healing. This speeds up the dungeon and keeps the group awake. Line of Sight When you have Line of Sight (LOS) with a target, you have no obstacles between. When there is an obstacle you have to move around it to attack. Ranged mobs follow this rule too. When LOS is broken they run toward a player until they regain LOS and begin attacking again. You can take advantage of this to make your pulls tighter which your DPS will thank you for. #Determine which mobs are ranged. #*If there is only one, you don't need to break LOS. Just bring the melee to the ranged mob. Done. #*If there are two, you can run to one and pull-in the other. (Given that you have a pull-in.) Done. #Otherwise, establish threat on the ranged mobs. #Find a nearby obstacle to hide behind. Walls are ideal. Thick trees are okay. Thin trees and totem poles are a last resort. #The ranged mobs should be interrupted on their current cast and run towards you. #There's more than one way to run around a tree. Sometimes they don't all follow the same path and end up close, but not stacked. While running up against the tree, slowly move around it until the mobs stack. Pulling Multiple Groups Back to back pulls are fast paced and not easy to perform. You should be very familiar with your skills and their cooldowns. Know your party. Can the DPS keep up with the pulls. Can the healer keep you alive. Ask yourself these question and save yourself from laying face down eating dirt. In a nut shell, you want to use each individual CD and taunt to bring in a new group while making sure your group isn't getting attacked. #Pull a new group with a CD or heavy attack. #Repeat 1 until all are on CD. #Pull a new group with a taunt. #Establish threat on the taunted group. #Pull any mobs off your party. #Still things to pull? Go back to 1. #Kill ALL the things! Emergencies ;Burst Damage :All tanks have a quick damage mitigation which reduces your received damage by a percentage. Quick powerful bursts of damage are the best circumstance to use it: forgot to run in the AoE, standing in the path of a laser, or a mob exploding. ;Sustained Damage :In some cases, the damage is heavy and it lasts much longer, such as an accidental pull. When this happens: #Let your health fall down to about 15% #Quickly use your absorb CD #Your absorb will last ten seconds and should not fall off. #In this timeframe, your healer should be able to bring you to full health. ;Prolonged Sustained Damage :If you're still taking damage, use any healing potions you have, any tiny amount that contributes health will ensure you group lasts that much longer. the best thing you can do is work with your healer and space out your CDs. This includes letting your health drop incredibly low before casting your absorb CD as described in the previous case, otherwise your healer will have nothing to do. Using your cooldown while already at full health will waste what could have been ten seconds worth of healing. Say for instance you accidentally pull an extra group. #Time elapsed: 00 Seconds. 100% health. Used absorb CD. #Time elapsed: 10 Seconds. 100% health. Absorb took all the damage. #Time elapsed: 20 Seconds. 50% health. Your health is falling fast. Healer is using all CDs. #Time elapsed: 30 Seconds. Death. Now what happens when you wait for your health to fall. #Time elapsed: 00 Seconds. 100% health. #Time elapsed: 10 Seconds. 50% health. Healer frantically healing. #Time elapsed: 19 Seconds. 1% health. Used absorb. Healer still frantically healing. #Time elapsed: 30 Seconds. 100% health. Absorb took all the damage. Healer healing. #Time elapsed: 40 Seconds. 50% health. Healer healing. ;Party Member Death :When a party member is at risk for dying cast your tank intercept. You'll receive 50% of his damage taken. Sometimes this happens because the healer is too busy healing you, in which case you can cast your absorb. In seconds you should be put at full health. An experienced healer will let the absorb do some work, and switch focus to the dying member. ;Lost Aggro :When mobs go right past you and attack your group: #Cast your tank intercept. #Get a clear sight. #*Jump up so you can see over the mobs clustering you. #*Or move sideways. #Ranged taunt them. If you don't have one, do the next step. #Optionally you can charge/teleport at your group. #Establish aggro on the new mobs. AoE them! #Continue taunting and building threat on any missed adds. ;Death :When a tank dies, mob aggro will shift towards the next highest person, kill him, and move again and again until the whole group is killed. This result is a wipe. As a last resort healers can resurrect allies from within combat. You should expect this and be prepared. #On death, spot your healer and your group. Be aware of where they physically are. #Move the mouse to the center of the screen and accept that resurrect immediately when it hits. #You will have 50% health and be standing on top of your healer. #Aggro will more than likely shift towards your DPS. You will need to run towards them and taunt. #Don't expect any heals to hit you. The healer will be busy with saving the rest of the team. Use any cooldowns to keep yourself alive. Tank Skillsets Category:Beginner